Holder and dispenser for toothpicks



Jan. 14, 1947.

C. E. JOHNSON 4@OLDER AND DISPENSER FOR TOOTHPICKS Filed Jan. 14, 1944 Cf/HRL E5 E. Jo/f/vso/v INVENTOR.

Patented Jan. 14, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENTfoFFicE HQLDER AND DISPENSER FOR TOOTHPICKS Charles E. llohnson, Memphis, Tenn. Application January 14, 1944, Serial No. 518,276

(Cl. S12-73) 1 claim. 1

pered at both ends for a substantial portion of their length. They are usually sold in packages in which they lie parallel, and Vprovided they are grasped near the middle so as not to disturb this parallelism, a bunch may be removed from the package and inserted endwise into a suitably shaped container. In many cases also round bundles are sold which are adapted as they are to such placing. Their pointed 'ends permit ready passage through an opening in the holder for expulsion, but tend, with very little provocation, toward point concentration and engagement of several at one time with the discharge opening, causing jamming if the hole be made small enough for discharge of one only, or greater jamming if larger, or in the latter event, equally unwanted dispensing of several at one time should jamming not occur, sanitary requirements requiring that those not needed or wanted be thrown away.

The objects of the invention are:

To provide a holder in which a bundle of tooth picks may be placed at one time and thereafter be loosely held;

To provide such a holder which has a height or length suiliciently in excess of the length of the ordinary tooth pick to permit substantial 1ongitudinal movement of the tooth picks loosely disposed within the holder, such excess length being preferably between one quarter and onehalf the tooth pick length, whereby an expelling throw may be made;

To provide a holder which is apertured to freely pass a single tooth pick only at one time;

To provide a holder in which the apertured dispensing head is substantially flat and at rightangles to the length of the barrel in a zone around the dispensing opening whereby side thrust tending to effect concentration of several of the picks and jamming in the hole is avoided.

The means by which the foregoing and other objects are accomplished, and the manner of their accomplishment, will readily be understood from the following specification upon reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of the preferred form of the holder.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof; and

Figs. 3 and 4 are fragmentary sectional elevations, showing respective modications which may be made in the head without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Referring now to the drawing, in which the various parts are indicated by numerals:

The holder comprises a barrel portion Il, having a bottom head I3 and a top head I5.4 One of these heads, here indicated as the top l5, is made removable for filling purposes, the head and the barrel having complementary threads Il.

The barrel H is preferably a hollow prism, which may be a cylinder, and is here so shown. It may be of metal glass, plastic or other desired, or obtainable, material, though preferably the material is transparent so that the content may be observed. Conveniently the barrel may be some one and one-half inches inside diameter and should be some three and one-half inches deep, this being some one inch more than the length of the usual tooth pick.

The top head of the holder has a central aperturei9 which is of suiciet size to permit dispensing tooth picks singly, but too small to permit passage of more than one at a time, a hole one-eighth inch in diameter being a satisfactory size. A portion 15A of the head immediately around the aperture I9 is substantially at, to avoid any tendency to concentrate the points of the tooth picks toward the hole, this flattened portion having an areal diameter roughly half that of the head. Surrounding this area the head may be provided with an inwardly projecting cylindrical shoulder section 15B from the inner end of which a connecting portion 15C of the head extends outward to the barrel, this latter portion -being ilat or even very shallowly inwardly dished.

'Ihe heads |5D and 15E, shown respectively in Figs. 3 and 4, include the same ilat areal sections around the apertures IBD, ISE, respectively, and there function as does the head l5. In Fig. 3 the head around the area is domed toward the barrel, whereas in Fig. 4, the entire head is fiat.

To fill the holder, the removable head is taken ofi and a bundle or bale of tooth picks suiicient to loosely fill the barrel is placed therein and the head replaced. In dispensing, the barrel I3 is held in the hand and the mass of tooth picks remain in parallelism while resting on the bottom, and of the points to retain the spacing made by the larger mid diameters of the picks, the flat surface around the hole having no tendency to concentrate the points, and rejecting the re,-V

mainder without crowding them together, or jamming the one being ejected.

I claim:

A tooth pick container and. dispenserA comprising a receptacle open at its upper end and a head removably secured thereon, said head including a flat disc portion of about one half head diameter, centrally apertured to provide a dispensing opening of diameter to freely pass a single tooth pick only, an annular inwardly stepped shoulder around said disc portion, and an annular disc extending therefrom to the surroundingl wall of said receptacle, said annular disc beingy inwardly dished. to restrain shift of said tooth picks toward said central disc and dispensing opening.

CHARLES E. JOHNSON. 

